Elon Musk to Reinstate Controversial Commentator Nick Fuentes on X
‘I can’t declare to be a defender of free speech, however then completely ban somebody who hasn’t violated the regulation,’ Mr. Musk mentioned.
X proprietor Elon Musk has agreed to reinstate the account of controversial commentator Nick Fuentes, with the tech mogul saying he believes it’s higher to have contentious views aired overtly on the platform the place they are often subjected to scrutiny and debate quite than to “develop simmering within the darkness.”
“He has been banned since 2021, what occurred to your promise huge man?” the GoyaBeanGroyper account posted.
In response to the put up calling for Mr. Fuentes’s reinstatement, Mr. Musk responded within the affirmative.
‘Freedom Friday’
Mr. Musk famously sought to purchase Twitter with the pledge of turning it right into a bastion of free speech. After the transaction closed and he turned the social media big’s proprietor, he moved to reinstate plenty of accounts that had been banned below the earlier possession.
“This may most likely trigger us to lose lots of advertisers and makes me unhappy, however a precept is a precept,” added the self-avowed “free speech absolutist.”
Mr. Musk’s resolution was usually met with optimistic reactions from accounts that advocate without spending a dime speech, together with from Babylon Bee founder and CEO Seth Dillon.
Ian Miles Cheong, a preferred conservative commentator and social media influencer, took to X in reward of the choice.
Mr. Fuentes didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the reinstatement.
![Controversial political commentator Nick Fuentes is interviewed by Agence France-Presse in Boston, Mass., on May 9, 2016. (William Edwards/AFP/Getty Images)](https://www.theepochtimes.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F02%2Fid5642672-GettyImages-687485390-1200x800.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
“Free Nick Fuentes,” he mentioned. “Give me my [expletive] Twitter again.”
Elsewhere within the podcast, Mr. Sosnick learn out a bio of Mr. Fuentes that labeled him as a Holocaust denier, an anti-Semite, and a “white Christian nationalist.”
Mar-a-Lago Dinner Controversy
In November 2022, Mr. Fuentes accompanied Mr. West unannounced to a dinner with President Trump at his house in Mar-a-Lago, triggering a refrain of destructive media protection.
President Trump later mentioned he didn’t know who Mr. Fuentes was and expressed shock on the three further dinner friends as he anticipated Mr. West to come back by himself.
“Kanye West very a lot needed to go to Mar-a-Lago,“ President Trump wrote in a put up on Fact Social on the time. ”Our dinner assembly was supposed to be Kanye and me solely, however he arrived with a visitor whom I had by no means met and knew nothing about.”
Some Republicans had been publicly crucial of President Trump’s judgment for assembly with Mr. West and Mr. Fuentes.
“There isn’t any room within the Republican Get together for anti-Semitism or white supremacy, and anybody assembly with folks advocating that viewpoint, in my judgement, [is] extremely unlikely to ever be elected president of america,” Mr. McConnell mentioned at a press convention.
![Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks to reporters in Washington on Oct. 4, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)](https://www.theepochtimes.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F03%2F06%2Fid5601983-10042023-DSC04884-McConnell-OP-1200x800.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
The Republican senator later added that this “would apply to all the leaders within the occasion who shall be searching for places of work.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) advised NBC that President Trump “wants higher judgment in who he dines with,“ including, “I might not take a gathering with that particular person,” referring to Mr. Fuentes. “I wouldn’t take a gathering with Kanye West, both.”
Mr. Fuentes has been described by the Division of Justice (pdf), some information shops, and the Anti-Defamation League as a “white supremacist.”
President Trump later advised Fox Information that he had “no thought” what Mr. Fuentes’s views had been and that these views “weren’t expressed on the desk in our very fast dinner, or it wouldn’t have been accepted.”